For decades Africa has been held hostage by those posing today as her creditors such as the European nations and organisations
.They started by taking Africans into slavery and in 1884,sat in a room to share Africa among themselves. They ruled Africa with iron fist:exploited the minerals in her land for their own advantage and placed her children under forced labour.But when the yearning desire for freedom became strong and obvious,they reluctantly decided to allow Africans rule themselves but they cooked up another strategy to keep perpetuating slavery in Africa. And to effect their dubious plan,they granted loans to African nations .considering the circumstances under which the loans were granted,there seemed to be a secret intention. knowingly,the Europeans granted the loans to even callous dictators who either cornered the funds to private accounts back there in the Europe or diverted the funds to projects that did benefited only the ruling few. In addition,the so called creditors,did not follow up the implementation of the projects which the loans were meant for.
African nations have continued to service their debts at the cost of increased poverty;collapsing health systems and declining opportunities for education.yet,the debts keep accumulating.many spend more on debt servicing than on primary healthcare and basic education combined.investments for the future have been undermined by the debts of the past.Julius Nyarere, the founding father of Tanzania once queried"should we really let our children starve so that we can pay our debts".
In the meantime,some African nations are negotiating to pay off their debts.well,it is a welcome development but,they must be careful not to become enslaved again to the Europeans who see them as a hostage to fortune.Nevertheless,who said that Africans are owing the Europeans? what about the African sons and daughters they took into slavery and they died while toiling in the fields for them? when will they pay for the raw materials they took from the African soil?.In fact,it is high time,the Europeans and Africans came together to know actually,who is owing who.